Oh that’s bright! I have 4K and think it’s too bright. I am still not used to it after 1.5 years.

Kelvins has nothing to do with brightness!

It's a measure of the color of light given off by the bulb, measured in degrees Kelvin (i.e.: 2700K--warm light as given off by incandescent bulbs).

Brightness is measured in lumens, generally 250 to 1500 lumens for home lighting.

The problem with 4000 and 5000K bulbs is that they are so unnaturally bluish-white and cold looking. I hate them. A dimmer will make no difference in that.

5000K is the approximate temperature of "daylight" so will always look odd in doors as you have already experienced. Definitely have them on dimmers. And no matter what else you do, in your living room, do not stop with just the pot lights as lighting. You need to layer the lighting. Think lamps. Some for ambient lighting, some for task lighting like reading and some for up lighting the perimeter and dark corners.

Yes we use dimmers you don"t need lights that bright, can give you a migraine!

It’s not brightness. It’s color. 5000k is very blue. I can’t stand it.

It'd be like living in a grocery store or a hospital or something. That color temperature is fine for some settings, but not anyone's living room.

I think we wound up with 3800K for our kitchen lights, or 4000K. We kept moving the switch back and forth so I'm not sure.

Here is an idea ... you can buy lighting gels that are sheets of plastic which change the color of lights. I am linking to one example that you could check out as a way to see if you want to change the bulbs or fixtures before spending the time and money to do that:

https://goknight.com/lee-filters-807-zircon-warm-amber-4-led-lighting-gel-sheet-24-x-24-4000k-to-3000k/

I have never used this store, but I did use lighting gels to change the color of light for our Halloween display. The solar spotlights I like come in warm or cool white, and using gels I was able to light a witch with a sickly yellow-green and light the demon next to her with a blood red. Hope this helps, I got my gels from Amazon but I think you will want more normal colors for in the house.

4000K is daylight which IMO is as bright as you want . 5000K works best in commercial settings .I have 4000K all through my house and I love it, colors stay true at night which IMO is the best . You will find even those will feel really bright after having incandescents so be patient .

I chose 5k fixtures for my kitchen and have no regrets. Buy made-in-the-USA dimmers from an electrical supply house. My electrician was stumped as to why HD"s dimmers (made in China) wouldn't work.

I used Patricia Colwell's advice to use 4000K when I recently updated my kitchen lighting. My only complaint is that the new lighting exposed that my kitchen wasn't nearly as clean as I thought it was. I've spent my evenings this last week scrubbing and painting, lol.

We have 4000k in our kitchen with dimmers. The dimmers are great and gives you flexibility depending on the time of day, task at hand, etc.

I have never used a dimmer in my kitchen , when I want just a bit of light I just use the undercabinet lighting or only one bank depending on my kitchen.

I have 3000K bulbs nearly everywhere in my house. I put a 4000K bulb in my living room, where I have brightly colored artwork, because I wanted to emphasize the colors in the artwork. It was too blue for my taste and I changed it to 3000K.

@Patricia Collwell Consulting Patricia-question for you...I have 4K in the living areas of my house (bedrooms are 3K or 2.7K).

Walls are BM Oxford white, cabinets and ceilings are BM Chantilly lace. My kitchen is open to the living /dining space, and has a flat 8’ ceiling, can size 4”. I love the 4K in the kitchen-rarely use the dimmer. The dining/living space is vaulted, uses 6” cans, same 4K looks too bright-always on dim, if they are on. Is it the can size? Wall color-oxford tends to look more gray? Vault?

I was going to order 3k fixtures, with a gimbal, but not sure if it will clash with the kitchen. I wanted 3.5K but the manufacturer doesn’t make that in the same fixture. I don’t know think I can mix-match can/light...can I?

Or maybe just change paint color. At the time we were building it was too much to make paint color decisions and I think I’m ready to move on from all white walls in the living areas! Thanks for any insight!

3k and only 3k ... 4k for me (let alone 5k) is too clinical and cold. yes the color is more accurate (who cares frankly) and it appears brighter, but at a significant cost at loss of warmth feeling.

5K is like going to the Dr.'s Office.

3K is like: https://youtu.be/x0I6mhZ5wMw

I always preferred how my living room looked during the day with natural light over evenings with artificial light, so I experimented with higher color temperature lamps. What I found was that I was staying up later because my brain wasn't getting the signals that human's have evolved to expect at the end of the day. Even sunlight shifts warmer at sunset as you head into darkness.

I have cooler lamps in the kitchen, but I'm back to lower color temperatures in the living room, and it is definitely easier to transition to bedtime and sleep now.

You can get remote controlled color tunable lamps. They are more expensive, but might be a way to compromise.

There are LEDs that get warmer as they dim. Similarly, there are LEDs with warm/medium/cool settings (e.g. 2.7k/3.5k/5k). And of course there are bulbs that run the gamut (like Philips Hues) from warm to frigid with all colors of the rainbow too. Problem is that, as cawaps says, most work best when you control them with your phone or a remote instead of the physical light switch. Myself I prefer a golden warmth of an evening, and would hate living in your husband’s Sam’s Club inspired living room 😉

We just went to big box store and could get 2700, 3000, and then jumped to 5000, no 4000 in a BR30 for recessed cans. 650 lumens, it’s very bright, thankfully on a dimmer. Better than what we had but I’m going back to get the 3000 bulbs to compare.

We also tested 5000k at 1300 lumens, which will blow your eyeballs out; returning those. Philips may have 4000k in this type of bulb, but I couldn’t find it in the store.

I know this is old but it popped up on a Google search.

We have 3500K. For a wider selection you have to go to a lighting showroom or electrical supply shop. Ours are from ELCO Lighting (Cedar system) and I could order different combinations of Lumens and Kelvin.

5000K is like the blue light of Krypton. Even 4000K is too blue for me.